A Remote Desktop Services session stops responding during the logoff process in Windows Server 2008 R2

A new KB article (2571388) was released yesterday regarding the logoff process on a Windows Server 2008 R2 machine running the RD Session Host role. The cause is a deadlock situation in the Csrss.exe process. To apply the hotfix you must be running Service Pack 1.

Article ID: 2571388 - Last Review: March 14, 2012 - Revision: 1.0
A Remote Desktop Services session stops responding during the logoff process in Windows Server 2008 R2.

"...Consider the following scenario. You install the Remote Desktop Session Host role service on a computer that is running Windows Server 2008 R2. You try to log off a Remote Desktop Services session on the computer. In this scenario, the Remote Desktop Services session stops responding. After some time, the computer stops accepting incoming Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) or Independent Computing Architecture (ICA) connections.

You must turn off and then restart the computer to recover from this issue..."

Source: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2571388/en-us?sd=rss&spid=14134#appliesto

A closer look at MS12-020's critical issue

A blog post on Technet.com was brought online that more closely describes the issue with the MS12-020 vulnerability, possible workarrounds and affected systems. Follow the link on the end of this blog post to read the whole article.

"...Security Update MS12-020 addresses two vulnerabilities in Microsoft’s implementation of the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP). One of the two, CVE-2012-002, is a Critical, remote code execution vulnerability affecting all versions of Windows. This blog post shares additional information with the following goals:
To strongly encourage you to make a special priority of applying this particular update;
To give you an option to harden your environment until the update can be applied.

Note that CVE-2012-0002 was privately reported and we are not aware of any attacks in the wild. Additionally, the remote desktop protocol is disabled by default. However, due to the attractiveness of this vulnerability to attackers, we anticipate that an exploit for code execution will be developed in the next 30 days.

We understand and appreciate that our customers often need time to evaluate and install bulletins as appropriate for their environment. For systems running RDP without Network-Level Authentication (NLA) enabled, this post includes information on a mitigation that may be applied in advance of the bulletin..."

Source: http://blogs.technet.com/b/srd/archive/2012/03/13/cve-2012-0002-a-closer-look-at-ms12-020-s-critical-issue.aspx

What’s new in Remote Desktop Services Windows Server 8 BETA

A new document was published in regard to what’s new in Remote Desktop Services Windows Server 8 BETA.

"...Applies To: Windows Server 8 Beta

[This topic is pre-release documentation and is subject to change in future releases. Blank topics are included as placeholders.]

 

The Remote Desktop Services server role in Windows Server® “8” Beta provides technologies that enable users to connect to virtual desktops, RemoteApp programs, and session-based desktops. With Remote Desktop Services, users can access remote connections from within a corporate network or from the Internet.

In Windows Server “8” Beta, Remote Desktop Services offers enhanced support for the following scenarios:

• Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) deployments
• Session Virtualization deployments
• Centralized resource publishing
• Rich user experience with Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP)
  

Each of these is described in the sections that follow..."

You can check it out the full document here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh831527.aspx